Marketplace: Losing a real 'titan'

Last week, Nashville lost a real estate titan when Bob Mathews passed away.

He was a pretty powerful man for a lot of years in downtown development and was part of the Ryman Redevelopment that ultimately brought Nashville’s iconic Batman building.

Mr. Mathews also owned a bunch of land up in Hendersonville. That land is being developed to help fuel that city’s growth.

He was quite quotable and delivered words filled with the wisdom of a developer who’d been through more than one real estate cycle.

The real estate community misses him already.

Bridgestone could make tracks to RC

Bridgestone finally announced Murfreesboro was on the short list for a technology center.

The company, which has its North American headquarters here, had been teasing everyone with it for some time and the business community is abuzz about it going to Rutherford County. It would move the center from Akron, Ohio. Apparently, the current one there won’t do any longer so it’s been new there or new near the headquarters.

Meanwhile, supporters of May Town Center are saying if Nashville had the real estate available, it could have been in the running for the 500,000-square-foot operation.

For Murfreesboro, the deal for 600 engineering and science jobs would do something economic development officials have sought for years, a major jump start to establishing a Class-A office environment.